The House of Mirth

"The tragic fall of Lily Bart, a beautiful socialite who loses her footing in the savage social-climbing world of New York high society in the nineteenth century. Lily Bart has no fortune, but she possesses everything else she needs to make an excellent marriage: beauty, intelligence, a love of luxury and an elegant skill in negotiating the hidden traps and false friends of New York's high society. But time and again Lily cannot bring herself to make the final decisive move: to abandon her sense of self and a chance of love for the final soulless leap into a mercenary union. Her time is running out, and degradation awaits. Edith Wharton's masterful novel is a tragedy of money, morality and missed opportunity." -- from publisher's website.

Summary:"The tragic fall of Lily Bart, a beautiful socialite who loses her footing in the savage social-climbing world of New York high society in the nineteenth century. Lily Bart has no fortune, but she possesses everything else she needs to make an excellent marriage: beauty, intelligence, a love of luxury and an elegant skill in negotiating the hidden traps and false friends of New York's high society. But time and again Lily cannot bring herself to make the final decisive move: to abandon her sense of self and a chance of love for the final soulless leap into a mercenary union. Her time is running out, and degradation awaits. Edith Wharton's masterful novel is a tragedy of money, morality and missed opportunity." -- from publisher's website.

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A wonderful novel with a great deal of insight into human nature, and into the predicament of women at the time. Lily Bart is a rare character, one that should be contemptible but is also sympathetic and fascinating.

While I recognize that there is a wonderful discussion to be had regarding gender based upon this book, it was difficult to feel empathy for Lily. Her arrogance and ignorance were hard to swallow. This is a far cry from the working class literature of writers like Orwell and London. This novel is a disgusting look at the sheer stupidity of the wealthy.

I am so glad i didn't live in this time. Was angry that the only way out for this character was to die! But realize that is exactly what the author was trying to show us; the inequity of being a woman.

jeanner222
Dec 26, 2012

I’m not sure of the meaning of this novel’s title—very little mirth here, at least for our main character, Lily Bart.

Turn of the century New York sets the stage for Lily’s story. Lily walks a tightrope amongst the elite of the city. She is not wealthy; she is a hanger-on. She is beautiful, very beautiful, and her beauty is her currency.

As she ages and still fails to marry, despite her beauty, Lily begins to swim in dangerous waters. What is most troubling is that her failure to marry is her own fault. She doesn’t want to marry for just money, even though that is precisely what she needs to do. Of course, such a naïve notion becomes her downfall. And her downfall is sad and ugly.

I really enjoyed the first half of the novel, in which Lily still had status amongst the elite. The second half of the novel, which chronicles her downward spiral, is slow and depressing.

In order to maintain her place in society, she must marry wisely. Being orphaned, she must look to herself to make a good match. As Lily says "...when a girl has no mother to palpitate for her, she must be on the alert for herself."

Even with the advantages of beauty, ambition, wiles, and great delicacy, Lily, without an interested party to look out for her, makes a series of fatal mistakes.

The inexorableness of Lily's fate, only whispered and hinted at at first, becomes more and more clear as the novel progresses until the reader is led to the inescapable conclusion. I felt as if I were firmly in the authors's deft hands through the entire book, although the author, herself, never intruded on the story once.

Quotes

But now his love was her only hope, and as she sat alone with her wretchedness, the thought of confiding in him became as seductive as the river's flow to the suicide. The first plunge would be terrible, but afterward, what blessedness might come! ...Oh, if he really understood; if he would help her to gather up her broken life and put it together in some new semblance in which no trace of the past should remain!